An anonymous reader writes: A majority of the community is revolting against the Slashdot beta http://beta.slashdot.org/ and the men and women behind the scenes are ignoring the community. Let's see what that brings with it...

Fluffeh writes: "Nicolas Suzor lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology has a wonderful and insightful op-ed on the recently coveredHigh Court case and the effect it has on Australians as well as internationally. "It’s a very important decision worldwide. We’ve only seen a few of these decisions so far. There was one in the Irish High courts where the Irish ISP Eircom was found liable for infringement on its network. This decision in Australia is the most considered decision that we have seen in common law countries. It represents the next iteration of an attempt by copyright owners to enlist the aid of internet service providers to police infringement on the internet. [...] This decision provides a good deal of certainty to Australian ISPs under current law, so copyright owners will likely increase pressure on policy makers to develop a new legislative regime.""

McGruber writes: Following up on the earlier Slashdot story "Congress Wants Your TSA Stories" (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/03/23/2312228/congress-wants-your-tsa-stories), earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing titled 'TSA Oversight Part III: Effective Security or Security Theater?' that was streamed line by CSPAN (http://www.c-span.org/Events/House-Hearing-Examines-TSA-Security-Initiatives/10737429331-1/).

In a blog update (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/congressional_t.html), Bruce Schneider says that "at the request of the TSA" he was removed from the witness list.

Bruce also said "it's pretty clear that the TSA is afraid of public testimony on the topic, and especially of being challenged in front of Congress. They want to control the story, and it's easier for them to do that if I'm not sitting next to them pointing out all the holes in their position. Unfortunately, the committee went along with them."

techgeek0279 writes: "Undiagnosed anemia, and subsequent hemorrhaging, is a major — but completely preventable — cause of death in childbirth around the world. In this inspiring TED talk, Myshkin Ingawale describes how (after 32 tries) he and his team created a simple, portable device that tests for anemia without pricking the skin."

Toe, The writes: "In response to Microsoft's attempt to dismiss Apple's 'App Store' trademark application, Apple references Microsoft's claim to the Windows trademark. 'Having itself faced a decades-long genericness challenge to its claimed WINDOWS mark, Microsoft should be well aware that the focus in evaluating genericness is on the mark as a whole and requires a fact-intensive assessment of the primary significance of the term to a substantial majority of the relevant public.'"

superglaze writes: "The Business Software Alliance, a lobbying organisation representing the likes of Microsoft, Adobe and Apple, has laid into the UK's recently-adopted policy of mandating the use of open standards wherever possible in government IT systems.The policy describes open standards as being "publicly available at zero or low cost" and having "intellectual property made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis" The BSA said this would "inadvertently reduce choice [and] hinder innovation", and even went so far as to claim open standards would lead to higher e-government costs, but open-source advocates say the policy reflects how much the European Interoperability Framework is weighted in favour of the proprietary software companies."

An anonymous reader writes: Despite continued proclamations of doom and gloom at the hands of piracy and file-sharing, the MPAA has posted its 2010 box office receipts. Thanks to a growing Asian market and 3D movie popularity, sales are up 8% from last year. But they still managed to spell doom and gloom for the future. What else is new?

An anonymous reader writes: Ever since Microsoft turned its back on Windows gaming in favour of the closed Xbox Ecosystem, the platform has been crying out for a champion. The company occasionally gives nods towards a revived focus upon PC gaming, most recently with yet another relaunch for Games for Windows Live and a trio of upcoming PC games, but when it comes to throwing cash around the Xbox is the beneficiary. What can definitely be said is that the one group that should be championing the PC, the PC Gaming Alliance, is going backwards. In 2009 the group lost the biggest PC game developer/publisher Activision-Blizzard, and now it seems that both Microsoft and Nvidia have bid the alliance farewell. This sounds pretty unimpressive considering the operating system developer, both major graphics manufacturers and the publisher of the biggest PC game have departed the alliance.

astroengine writes: "The United States is currently recovering from a helium isotope crisis that last year sent low-temperature physicists scrambling, sky-rocketed the cost of hospital MRI’s, and threw national security staff out on a search mission for alternate ways to detect dirty bombs. Now the panic is subsiding, what is being done to conserve, or replace, helium-3?"

Freshly Exhumed writes: A Canadian RF engineer could not locate the source of massive electromagnetic interference in his home until he realized that a new LTE communications tower had just been erected only 70 meters away, at a frequency of 734 MHz and a bandwidth of 10 MHz, running 1200 watts Effective Radiated Power. Additionally another 3000 watts ERP of PCS/Cellular went up in the same place. Rigging a detector out of a Schottky diode, a capacitor, an inductor, 6 inches of wire, and a piezo speaker, the sound was loud enough to be heard across the room. One would think that the Canadian telecom regulators would investigate and intervene, right? Nope: Industry Canada refused with a "not my job" email. See videos here and here of his plight.

eldavojohn writes: Riding the tail of Apple's 30% announcement, Google's Eric Schmidt has announced One Pass, a new method for users to pay for content. The BBC is reporting that Google is taking a 10% cut. One Pass will work on Google sites and on phones and tablets as the announcement notes: 'Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password. Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don't have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices.' This is to be handled through Google Checkout.

kkleiner writes: Look out LCD's because flexible, paper thin, AMOLED screens with super crisp resolution are about to become mainstream. Samsung recently unveiled a slew of new AMOLED products at CES 2011, and they did not disappoint. By layering thin sheets of an electroluminescent organic material, Samsung has managed to conceive of an entire line of products that take LED displays to an entirely new level – these videos you have to see to believe. From transparent displays to paper-thin deformable screens, Samsung has definitely set the AMOLED bar pretty high.

An anonymous reader writes: FreeDNS provides free DNS hosting. Friday night the service provider's most popular domain mooo.com has been hijacked by ICE — Department of Homeland Security. The popular domain was home to over 80,000 subdomains. No reason for the hostile take over was provided by the DHS. FreeDNS news pages states that the outage may take up to 3 days to fix.

Author speculates that the most likely reason for hijacking is one of the subdomains (destiny.mooo.com) was used to host a Wikileaks mirror.